


nothing i can do, i'm stuck with you

by thefullergirl



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 5 Times, College, Domesticity, Fluff, M/M, Professor!Jeno, cute stories, just...jeno being in love, narrated by Jisung, secret husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28285335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefullergirl/pseuds/thefullergirl
Summary: Lee Jenmoong is with Lee Haechan1dAlways the best jjigae after a long day! Thank you honey 😍 ❤️ #Blessed #BestHusbandEverJisung scrunches his nose. “Oh god, Professor Lee makes Facebook posts like he’s 45.”At that, Chenle flicks his forehead, right at his little textured patch. “Idiot. I’m saying he has ahusband.”
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 36
Kudos: 332
Collections: NCTV Secret Santa 2020





	nothing i can do, i'm stuck with you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pryvate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pryvate/gifts).



> to tee, i hope you like this! it's always a joy to write them, so i'm happy to have done this for you <3 (also, i hope the title of this is enough of a hint?)

Like any actual college student past their freshman year, Jisung hates 7 am classes.

Hell, he’d be lucky if he even woke up at 7 am these days. It was only his sophomore year, and yet here he was, tired to the bone, seriously considering if it was worth it to beg for a slot in the last remaining history class for the semester. He really did need this class, but having him get up way before 7 twice in a week was a bit much.

Doesn’t help either that his professor either drones on and on in a monotonous voice that barely helps to keep him awake, and that the exams that follow absolutely need for him to be awake during the lectures. Truly, he’s tried everything, from that ridiculous coffee they’re marketing specifically towards college students, to putting tiger balm under his eyes so that they sting enough to keep them open, to making a deal with his seatmate to pinch and/or kick each other once they both start to get sleepy. So far, nothing has worked very well.

So, Jisung drags himself out of bed before 6 am (a crime really), pours a little more extra sugar into his cereal in the hopes it helps somehow, dresses himself, and goes to class. Maybe he really shouldn’t have gotten the dorm room that’s definitely a bit far from campus, but that’s already a lot of things he can’t take back. He’s here now, and he just has to get through the semester and maybe he can relish in 10 am classes again.

He’s definitely not the first one to arrive in the classroom, about 20 minutes before the actual start of class. All three of the other students in the room are very much asleep on their desks, and who is Jisung to be different from everyone else?

His bag makes a dull thud when it hits the floor, a bit of a precursor to his forehead landing on his desk too. The weird, textured plastic is going to leave a mark, definitely, but he really, truly, could not care less.

When he wakes up to a finger prodding at his cheek, Jisung has no idea how much time has passed. It feels like he’s been asleep for an hour and 2 whole minutes at the same time. The finger keeps poking him, and he tries to swat it away.

“Jisung-ah,” Chenle whispers. Jisung barely registers Chenle’s bag hitting the floor, right next to his. “Jisung-ah, wake up.”

Groaning, he pushes himself up, scowling at his seatmate. “Is it time already?”

“Two minutes.”

“Ugh.” He rubs across his face, then slapping himself twice to get some semblance of wakefulness into him. Taking hold of Chenle’s shoulder, he shakes him, just until the boy turns to look at him. “Hey, does my forehead look fine?”

Chenle makes a face. “Wow, you look like you faceplanted into gravel.”

Jisung wishes he didn’t impulsively cut his bangs the previous week. He sighs, rubbing at the weird little patch of skin on his forehead that got the texture from his desk.

Beside him, his seatmate is taking out his binder and pencil case, setting it neatly down on his desk. “By the way, I have a plan.”

It’s Jisung’s turn to give him a look. “What do you mean, a plan?”

Looking left and right as if to check if anyone’s listening in on them, but Jisung highly doubts that. Nobody in this class even cared about anyone or anything else at this hour. He waits until Chenle looks satisfied that there is indeed no one listening, and he pulls out his phone.

“So, I kinda befriended Professor Lee last week on Facebook.” He makes a few taps on his screen, and he seems to be scrolling. “Because you know, why not right? It’s allowed anyways.”

Narrowing his eyes at him, Jisung nudges at his arms, which have taken up  _ Jisung’s  _ desk. “Where are you going with this?”

“Look.” The screen is turned to him, and Jisung is staring at two side-by-side photos of what looks like kimchi jjigae, taken from just slightly different angles.

“So… Sir Lee makes stew?”

Chenle makes a frustrated huff, thrusts the phone into his face. “Read the caption.”

Squinting, Jisung does just that, taking in all the words on Chenle’s phone screen.

**_Lee Jenmoong_ ** _ is with Lee Haechan _ _  
_ _ 1d _

_ Always the best jjigae after a long day! Thank you honey 😍 ❤️ #Blessed #BestHusbandEver _

Jisung scrunches his nose. “Oh god, Professor Lee makes Facebook posts like he’s 45.”

At that, Chenle flicks his forehead, right at his little textured patch. “Idiot. I’m saying he has a  _ husband.” _

He has absolutely no idea what his seatmate is getting at. It must show on his face, because Chenle makes another huff, and mumbles “Just watch” as the bell rings and their professor walks inside.

Professor Lee is actually pretty young, looking almost like he’s a fresh graduate. He never really said his age, or talked much about his background unless directly prompted, which was rare. Most of his stories, the ones they’ve heard anyways, aren’t much fun or he just cuts them short, so there really isn’t much of a point in the whole thing.

At the front of the small room, Professor greets them softly, putting down his things on the table. He takes out his laptop, opening it undoubtedly to the slide presentation he’s going to read off of today. Jisung already prepares himself, slapping his own cheeks just enough to get himself even more awake.

He sees Chenle shift, just a bit, leaning forward on his elbows on his own desk. Like he’s preparing for something. Jisung doesn’t know if he should be scared.

“How are you guys today?” Professor Lee asks, as he always does. It’s honestly magical how he can even appear to be alive at this hour, when pretty much everyone in the room is dead. He gets a kind of mumbled general response across the room, and he smiles at the effort at least.

As he struggles with their faulty HDMI cable, Chenle goes and asks, “Sir, you’re married?”

The way his ears pink right away has got Jisung curious. Was Chenle not supposed to know that or something?

“Uh, yeah, I am,” Professor Lee says. He fumbles with the cable, plugs and unplugs it into his laptop, but the corners of his mouth tug into a slight wince. “Oh, you saw?”

Chenle nods enthusiastically, clasping his hands together. “Just the kimchi jjigae post, sir. I didn’t think you’d be married, actually. You look so young.”

Their professor chuckles at this. It’s the first time Jisung has heard that in the semester so far, and he turns his head to gape at Chenle. At the front of the room, Professor Lee sits down on the desk chair, scrunching his face as he tries to figure out how to present his slides.

“People say that a lot,” he muses, clicking at something on his laptop. “But yeah, I did settle down pretty early. Nothing much about that.”

From the front of the room, somebody else pipes up, a classmate that Jisung forgot the name to. “Sir, you never told us your age,” they whine.

Momentarily, Professor Lee’s all-too-perfect brows (what history professor has brows like that?) raise. He sighs, lacing his fingers together in front of him on the desk.

“Not much older than all of you here. Try to guess.”

Someone from the back of the room tries 21. Professor Lee chuckles again, shaking his head and saying he’s not  _ that  _ young. They go through a few more guesses, some of them closer to 20, some closer to 30. He seems to delight in their guesses, just saying no to all of them.

“25,” he says finally, leaning back a little in his chair. His pale blue sweater looks soft and worn on him, and it makes him look older somehow, like he’s had more years of experience, and not like he’s just 5 years older than Jisung. “I’m only 25, guys.”

Jisung sees a corner of Chenle’s mouth tug up. “Wow, sir. So when did you get married then?”

Something fills their professor’s face, something very close to fondness. “23.”

A collective gasp goes around the room. Jisung can practically hear people’s jaws dropping to the floor. Professor Lee is amused by the reaction, Jisung can see that much.

Truthfully, he hadn’t heard of anyone marrying that young before, so it’s kind of a shock to him. He’s sure that it’s the same for many of them, trying to absorb this new information about their usually reserved professor.

“Come on guys, don’t look at me like I did something scandalous. I just got married.”

Everyone in the class seems to be perking up, excited to hear more. After all, Professor Lee very rarely indulged them about this sort of thing, but it seems like he was absolutely fine with it just this once.

While they ask him more questions, Jisung flipped to a chapter in his history book, something he knows they were supposed to do a graded recitation for today. Chenle doesn’t even look at him as he closes Jisung’s book, smiling sweetly.

Squinting at him suspiciously, Jisung just allows him.

“Sir! Did you have a big wedding?”

Even Professor Lee looks taken aback by the question, like he can’t quite believe that he’s being asked that right now. “Guys, how much do you think a teacher makes in a year? Do you think I could have a big wedding?”

The one who asked laughs, and the girl beside him leans forward, asks, “So what was it like?”

“What was it like?” he says incredulously. Professor Lee plops down into his chair, deflating a little. Jisung is holding his breath, scared that he’ll tell them off and say that they need to focus on the lesson.

But oh, he doesn’t do that.

“It was a garden wedding,” Professor Lee says, voice starting to take on a different tone. Okay, maybe Jisung should be scared of his lovesick professor. “My uh… parents’ home. Just invited 20 or so people. It was nice. We didn’t want anything too complicated, because it really wasn’t the party that mattered to us.”

That makes people go “awwww”. Jisung sees their professor tinge pink.

“Ooh, do you have photos, sir?” Chenle pipes up.

“Hm? Oh, uh, yeah. I do. Do you wanna see?”

Everyone shouts an enthusiastic, “yes!” and almost simultaneously lean forward. Professor Lee clicks on his laptop, navigating for a bit before apparently finding what he’s looking for. He turns it so that it faces the class, and everyone huddles close to see.

It’s a photo of their professor, standing against a backdrop of flowers and vines. He’s beaming, his suit simple but fitting him rather nicely. He looks so different without his glasses on, and Jisung has to do a double take.

The next photo is of the ceremony set-up, nice white chairs on the grass with gauzy ribbons and flowers. At the front is an archway, with those same flowers and ribbons. Nothing too fancy, but everything looks rather cute.

As everyone fawns over the photos, Jisung looks over to his professor. There’s the beginnings of a smile on his face, not quite as wide as the one in these photos, but it’s still a genuine smile. He must really be happy about this.

They end the class early once they’ve seen all the photos that their professor had saved on his laptop (but he promised to try to show them the rest sometime). On the way out, Chenle nudges him in the ribs, triumphant grin on his face.

The next day, Chenle is more than prepared. Jisung tries to tell him that they’re not likely to get lucky the second time around, but his seatmate only flashes him a wicked grin.

He at least waits for Professor Lee to set up, which, well, doesn’t actually happen. Jisung can feel his brows furrow as he watches Professor Lee sit in his chair, hands clasped. 

“Okay. So I left the presentation at home and I couldn’t go back to get it.” He unclasps his hands, turning his palms up. “Guess it’s your lucky day, class. You can leave early, but you need to read chapters 20 to 25 for next meeting.”

Surprisingly, nobody gets up yet. Jisung already has a feeling he knows why they haven’t left.

“Sir, how about we just tell stories?” Chenle asks, his legs swinging almost excitedly.

Their professor leans back in his chair, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt idly. “Like what?”

Chenle’s about to launch into one of his many prepared questions, when a classmate pipes up. “How’d you meet your husband, sir?”

From the front of the room, Professor Lee snorts. “You’re so curious about him.”

There’s kind of a collective shrug amongst them, and their professor sighs, shakes his head. He straightens up a little, and Jisung knows that he’s about to launch into a retelling. It’s still a little hard for him to believe that Professor Lee obliges them so easily.

“Funny story actually.”

Everyone is already adjusting in their seats, eager to listen. It’s probably the most alive Jisung’s seen of this class, even more so than their last meeting. Nothing quite like the promise of a story of the personal life of their professor to get them going.

“I don’t think I’ve told you ever, but I have cats. Three of them, actually.”

Now that’s new information. Jisung would have thought that he wasn’t really the type to keep pets, and he didn’t seem to have any markers on him that made him look like a pet owner. No cat hair, no scratches, not even a wallpaper on his laptop or a folder labelled “cats” or something.

“So, it was Seol’s birthday, so I decided to get one of those cakes that you can give to pets. Okay, disclaimer: I had no idea where to get those.”

He laces his fingers together, a fond expression on his face. “I went to this petstore down the street, hoping they had cakes like that or maybe just tell me where to look. And Bongshik was being fussy, so I had to bring him with me. I was honestly frazzled that day, so I know I was 100% embarrassing on that day.”

Everyone laughs. Jisung could bring up a mental image of their normally calm professor being a mess as he tried to look for the cake.

“Now, this petstore is pretty big, as in you-can-get-lost-in-it big. So, yeah, just imagine me, getting lost in that store, with a fussy cat strapped to my chest. Not the best look right? Yeah. And then the universe said it was the perfect time for an angel to come and see my pitiful state.”

Jisung has no idea what Professor Lee’s husband looks like, so he tries to conjure up a possible husband for Professor Lee. Someone just as soft-spoken maybe? Someone who likes sweaters just as much as he does. Yeah, that seems to be right.

“He laughed, you know?” Their professor shakes his head. “Not in a mean way. Just...he was amused at my state, and then immediately offered to help me. Apparently they had cake that was okay for pets in the store, so he brought me over to there. Kept cooing at Bongshik the entire time. And because I apparently lose all my braincells when faced with a gorgeous boy, I couldn’t even talk to him.”

At this, everyone coos. It’s cute, to think that their professor would just be absolutely flustered by someone he had just met at the store.

Professor Lee looks down at his hands, a hint of a smile on his lips. “God, I know I blanked out a lot while he was talking to me, but he was so nice. The guy at the stall with the cakes was explaining to me, but I had to get Bongshik to stay still and I couldn’t follow, so Haechan had to help me in choosing a cake.”

“Haechan?” Chenle asks, as if he doesn’t already know the name.

It makes Professor Lee’s smile spread. “Yeah, that’s his name. Haechan.”

The class tests out this name, marvelling at how it sounds. Professor Lee snorts at their efforts.

“God, if I tell him about this, he’ll probably talk about it for days. He gets excited about this sort of thing.”

“Tell us more!” Yangyang pipes up, because if not Chenle, he’d be the one most excited about this. “Did he give you his number?”

Laughing, their professor fixes his gaze on the old desk. “No. But he got  _ my _ number, because he was asking me to fill out this form for newsletters or something. I honestly don’t even remember what I wrote, because Haechan was smiling at me, like customer service smile but softer, and I think I died a little in that petstore.”

The class erupts into laughter again. It seems like their professor really was dumbstruck by his husband on the very first meeting. 

“So, I got a cake for my cat and a text from Haechan about a discount code the next time I went to that store. Not the perfect first meeting, but well, I got him in the end didn’t I? In conclusion, not that bad.”

The smile on their Professor’s face doesn’t fade when he stands up and starts packing up his things. It even grows wider, like he’s remembered something that makes him happy, and he shakes his head as if remembering that he’s in front of a class.

With a soft sigh, Professor Lee looks up at the class through his glasses. “You can all go now. We’ll try again for the lesson next time, alright? Bye, everyone.”

It’s a cacophony of chairs scraping against the floor and chatter as everyone stands up, all in high spirits because of the little sharing time and the class being ended early again. Jisung wouldn’t want to hope that all their other meetings are like this, but he really is having fun with it.

Chenle’s in such a good mood that he drags Jisung to get milk tea. Even pays for him, the grin on his face making his whiskers show.

Alright, Jisung definitely wants this sort of day to be a regular thing.

Their professor’s head pops in through the doorway. “Could somebody help me get something? I just need one person.”

Jisung very nearly gets shoved out of his chair by his seatmate. There’s a wide grin onChenle’s face when he turns to glare at him, and he’s trying to show through his eyes that he doesn’t want to volunteer.

“Ah, Jisung? Would it be alright with you?”

Flashing their professor a tight-lipped smile, Jisung moves to get up. He wasn’t going to outright say no, especially since he knows that barely anybody else in the class would be willing to go. So, he steps over feet and bags to get to the front of the room, meeting Professor Lee’s relieved expression.

The hallway isn’t all that quiet, as there were still handfuls of students leaving their classes or just now entering them. They weave through everyone to go to where Jisung presumes the offices are, with him following mutely behind the professor.

“Thank you, by the way,” he hears, and it makes him look up from where he was fiddling with his ID. “You’re a pretty nice kid, Jisung.”

For a solid moment, Jisung is confused, mostly because it’s far too early for a thank you. But as he walks with him, as he sees the corner of Professor Lee’s mouth quirk up, he realizes why he said that.

Admittedly, the class wasn’t the most alive and cooperative during their lessons. Jisung knows he’s part of that, consistently so. This was a job for their professor, of course, but it can be discouraging to be met with little to no response sometimes. 

So this, just simply being nice and coming to help him, it must mean a lot. Jisung feels a pang of guilt at the thought.

“Of course, sir. I’d love to help anytime.”

He gets a response in the form of a quick nod and the smile reaching the professor’s eyes. There are no other words shared between them, but it’s an easy silence.

They reach the shared office for all the History professors, all harshly airconditioned and smelling of old books. Professor Lee says hi to some colleagues before waving Jisung over to where his desk is. Jisung sees the wooden nameplate,  _ Professor Lee Jeno, History II  _ engraved on it. Here, for some reason, it smells like clean linen, but warmer in a way he can’t describe.

“It’s a diorama,” the professor explains. “It’s not heavy really, but it’s too big for me to carry on my own without tipping over. That’s why I needed the help.”

Nodding, Jisung peers over to see where Professor Lee is unearthing the diorama. They were currently on a lesson on dynasties, and it looks like the diorama is of  _ Gyeongbokgung.  _ It’s a very detailed one at that, bright and lively like there’s still a royal family that lives in that tiny rendition.

Jisung can’t help but let out an exclamation when he sees it. “Wow, sir! Did you make that?”

Their professor looks sheepish as he looks at the figure. “Ah, um. Kind of? I had help, actually.”

“It must have been a lot of work…” The piece is large, and with so many little things that can only be noticed the more one looks at it. Jisung guesses that it would have taken days, if not weeks of work. 

“It was,” he says simply, dusting off the thin layer of dust on the acrylic cover. “Haechan was really helpful with it.”

Jisung feels his eyebrows raise. “Oh! Your husband was the one who helped?”

He sees that same fond smile spread across their professor’s features that seems to be reserved only for his husband. Professor Lee composes himself, but traces of that smile are still there.

“Yeah. It was, uh, it was our first date actually.”

It feels like Jisung’s brows reach his hairline at this point. He doesn’t really know what to say to that, and he feels like if that little tidbit was shared in class, everyone would be roaring for the whole story.

Thankfully, the professor seems to catch on, and he lets out a soft chuckle. “The backstory’s not as interesting as you think.”

Jisung positions himself near the diorama, getting ready to carry it. He’s feeling even more nervous about it now that he knows it must hold a very special place in Professor Lee’s heart, but the kind expression he’s given assures him a bit.

“Kind of lame actually,” Professor Lee says, guiding him on how to lift it. “I asked him to go to a movie with me, but the movie sucked.”

The diorama leaves the table, and it’s not quite as heavy as Jisung expected it to be. It lifts easily, and between the two of them, they can easily carry it to the classroom.

“I kept saying sorry to him, saying that I’d make it up to him, and he just laughed and said he still had fun.” Jisung can’t really see his expression that well, but he’s sure that he’s happily recalling these memories. “I was so embarrassed, so he told me that we could just go hang out to make up for it, so I agreed.”

Surprisingly, the small-ish crowd of students parted ways as they passed, understanding of how much they’re carrying. Professor Lee nods his head in thanks, walking a little faster so that they don’t block the hallway for long.

“So.” Jisung is trying to rack his brain for a way to say it so that it doesn’t seem rude. “You...built this while you were hanging out?”

He catches onto the tail end of a nod. “Yeah. He saw the kit in my dorm and I didn’t have the time to do it before then, so it was untouched. Haechan was so incredulous that he sat me down and said that we were going to do it, even if it killed us.”

Jisung giggles at that. Professor Lee’s husband sounds like quite the guy. “It didn’t kill you,” Jisung muses out loud.

That gets a snort from their professor. “It didn’t. Haechan dumped out all the parts on the floor and told me that we were going to finish it that night.”

Narrowly avoiding bumping into someone, Jisung tries to keep himself steady. He casts a glance to the diorama in the case, trying to see if anything got shifted. There doesn’t seem to be any damage, but he can never be too sure.

“Did you, sir?” Jisung doesn’t remember the offices being this far from the classroom. He can feel the case start to dig into his hands.

It’s not that hard to imagine their professor, cross-legged on his dorm room floor, trying to put together this massive diorama. This mysterious husband talking and laughing with him, but remaining absolutely determined to make something out of all the parts and pieces in the box.

Professor Lee shakes his head. “No, not even close. We both kind of passed out after a few hours, so Haechan said we should just continue it another day. Kind of a bad first date, but it ended with him coming by just to help me assemble this, so again not that bad.”

Jisung swallows a giggle. It seems like Professor Lee and his husband kept having these little moments that weren’t perfect, especially for first everythings, but that was never actually a problem. Years later, they got married, and maybe that’s some sort of fate in work. Nothing the universe would throw at them would deter them from going to each other.

Or maybe they’re just that good with each other. They kept trying, or at least the now-husband kept trying, even when Professor Lee was too flustered to make an actual move. He seemed to do what he could to keep them both going, and never gave up on him. It’s a comforting thought.

“It was bonding then, sir?”

He hears another chuckle. “You could say that. He nearly threw a glue bottle at my head, but we bonded over those two weeks that we spent doing this.”

Jisung laughs, being careful not to let the case slip from his hands. “He sounds very interesting.”

There’s a snort from the other end. “Yeah. Yeah, he is. That time, he made me laugh all the time, and all I could think was ‘damn, he’s like no one I’ve ever met before. I should keep him.’”

It’s only a few steps from the classroom now, and Jisung realizes he wants to slow down. He doesn’t say anything though, just takes smaller steps.

“I’m glad I did.” Professor Lee gives a close-mouthed smile. “I’m glad I get to keep the most interesting person in the world with me.”

As they near the classroom and Professor Lee positions himself to go into the room, Jisung wonders how long the couple has refused to give up on each other. He looks at the diorama, perfect and vibrant and detailed down to the very last millimeter, and smiles when he realizes they’ve never given up at all, and probably won’t anytime soon.

“Is it alright with you guys if I eat?”

Jisung looks up from their textbook. They were just going to read some chapters today and answer a few guide questions on the photocopies that were distributed to them. 

Professor Lee is looking at the class expectantly, waiting for an answer. Somebody says that it’s okay, and there’s the beginnings of a smile on their professor’s lips as he takes out what looks like a lunch bag.

“You can eat too, if you want. I’ll allow it today.” There’s the sound of his metal lunchbox being set down on the table, and his utensils being taken out. “Go ahead, guys. Eat if you want.”

Jisung does his best not to be distracted, but he can smell the food. Something spicy and good, and even though he’s already had his breakfast, it makes his stomach grumble a bit.

He tries to focus on what he’s reading. If he were to be honest to himself, he hasn’t exactly been 100% caught up with all the previous readings, so there are some references that he doesn’t quite understand. Jisung knows that he should keep himself focused on what he’s supposed to do so he doesn’t fall too far behind.

In the middle of a paragraph about one of the kings, he hears someone softly ask, “Is that kimchi jjigae, sir?”

Their professor makes a tiny sound as he seemingly looks up at the person who asked. A spoon seems to be put down momentarily. “Ah, yeah, it is! I woke up late today so I couldn’t really eat breakfast. I got this from last night’s leftovers and had to reheat it in our terrible microwave.”

A giggle ripples through the class. They’ve all seemed to have heard about the mostly broken microwaves in all the offices one way or another. Beside Jisung, Chenle opens a package of cookies and offers him one.

“Did your husband make that?” Chenle muses around a bite of chocolate chip. Jisung gets a mini flashback to how this whole curiosity about Professor Lee’s husband started: with Chenle finding a Facebook post.

Nodding, their professor mixes more rice into his stew. “It’s his favorite, so we have it like twice a week. He likes to cook whenever he has time.”

Jisung attempts to go back to the paragraph he was on just as another cookie is thrust his way. He takes it, brushing the crumbs off of his book pages.

“Oh! Does he make your lunches?” Chenle asks, his excitement showing through his voice.

Professor Lee swallows the bite he was chewing. “I’m not much of a cook, so yes. Also, do go back to your work, Chenle.” 

With a nod, Jisung’s seatmate turns the page on the book. Jisung has no idea if he’s actually reading or just making it seem like he is, because he really is yet to see Chenle go through the book in class. He either did it at home or he’d magically have enough knowledge on the subject matter to survive. On most days, Jisung would rather not ask about his methods.

It’s blessedly quiet for a while, just the crinkling of snack packets and pages turning breaking that silence. Jisung has already answered a couple of the guide questions, and he’s continuing with the rest of the chapters assigned for today.

That quiet is broken when someone (Yuna, if Jisung remembers correctly) pipes up with, “What else does he cook, sir?”

The question gets an incredulous exhale as the first response. Next comes “A lot of things actually. Whatever he wants,” said around a mouthful of rice.

Swallowing his food, Professor Lee taps his spoon idly against the edge of his bowl. “Sometimes he’ll look through the fridge and whip up something that inevitably tastes great. A lot of times, he wakes me up really early so that we can go to the market and get produce and good fish. He looks up recipes and tries them out, and usually that means I have to be the taste tester for all the trials. Whatever he experimented with will be in the fried rice the next morning.”

His water bottle makes a little pop as he opens it. “He shows he cares in a lot of ways, but food is one of the main ways he does it. After long days, he snuggles up to me with ramen, and he’ll feed me if I’m really out of it.”

A chorus of “awww”s can be heard throughout the class. That  _ is _ pretty adorable, and it makes Jisung want to have a bowl of ramen right now.

“He also...made seaweed soup for me.” Professor Lee shakes his head, like he can’t quite believe it. “The thing is, he doesn’t really like it. He’d prefer not to eat it. But he’ll make it for me, whenever I’d ask.”

His fingers drum against the plastic of his water bottle. “It’s...it’s how he cares. He loves people being happy, and he’ll do what he can to see that. And every time he makes me seaweed soup, I try to make him something too. Haechan always insists that I don’t have to, but I want to. He deserves that happiness too.”

Everyone settles into a contented peace afterwards, mulling over their professor’s words. It was so sweet, so tender, and it makes Jisung’s heart ache in a mostly good way. 

Later, as Jisung takes a break to stretch, he sees their professor scanning the class. He’s chewing slowly, carefully, his shoulders a bit more relaxed than how he usually holds himself in front of them. Somehow, he looks younger, like he’s almost just Jisung’s age, wide-eyed and not completely hardened by the world of adulthood and having to teach sleep-deprived college students.

The stew is almost all gone by now. Alright, Jisung is not that much of a romantic, but he thinks it would be nice to have someone who can cook a meal for him to bring to work. To have someone take time out of their day to prepare something, no matter how simple, for him just because they can and they want to. Not an obligation or anything, just genuinely them wanting to do it.

It must be nice to have someone the way that Professor Lee has his husband. Caring and gentle and encouraging, someone who makes their professor happier than they can see in these glimpses. Someone who complements him apparently, someone who, for all Jisung knows, brings out a side of their professor that explores all these new things. It must be really nice.

Jisung finishes his stretches and goes back to where he stopped reading. He’ll try to get kimchi jjigae for himself later.

It’s White Day, and Chenle gives Jisung a pack of gummy bears. Well, more of he throws it at Jisung’s head, and laughs when Jisung scrambles to catch it.

They’re going to have the game for extra points, so everyone’s a bit more tense than usual. Despite how laid-back their class has been recently, it doesn’t erase the fact that Professor Lee had some pretty killer tests, and they needed this review-slash-game-session. 

Even Chenle’s got his notes out, reading through them. He gets consistently alright scores, but games like the one they’re going to have today bring out every last bit of competitiveness in him. If he gets the highest score today, he might have enough points to get a perfect score on the test.

Jisung’s a little more relaxed about this. A good portion of the class was quick at raising their hands, and Jisung very rarely has the opportunity to beat them at that. He can still get some points by writing the correct answer down anyways, so he doesn’t want to compete too much with the others.

“Ready for today?” Chenle prods at his arm playfully. He’s in a pastel sweater today, a stark difference to his staple dark hoodies.

Popping a gummy bear into his mouth, Jisung shrugs. “You know I’m terrible at these games.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try today. The material is easy.”

Jisung makes a face. “Yeah, but not everyone’s fast when answering. Me very much included.”

Chuckling, Chenle plops himself into his chair. “Fine, I’ll lay low today.”

It makes Jisung snort, because he knows full well that his seatmate won’t.

Soon enough, their professor steps into the room, looking a little ruffled. He flashes them the brightest smile yet, but he’s kind of panting for breath. It’s like he ran to class, even though he isn’t all that late.

A surprised noise comes from the class though as they fully register their professor. It’s basically a full-on squeak, really. Professor Lee is in a soft pink suit, his silky shirt unbuttoned just enough. His hair is done up today, and he suddenly looks more angular than he has seemed in the past. Quite the contrast to how he is usually, all soft sweaters and his hair long enough to brush the top of his glasses.

“Sir!” somebody exclaims.

Their professor looks up, all wide-eyed as he sets his laptop down. He looks surprised and curious at the same time. “Yes? Is something wrong?”

“Oh my god, sir, do you model?” Yangyang asks, all the way from where he’s seated in a corner.

That gets a nervous little laugh from Professor Lee. “Oh. Ah. Is it...the outfit?”

“It’s the everything, sir.”

Professor Lee laughs, a full one. He shakes his head, opens his laptop. “It’s our anniversary today. I always dress up on this day. Admittedly, though, he did my hair. Says I’m hopeless with it, and he’s right.”

Anniversary on White Day. Jisung is convinced that they’re the perfect couple.

Before anyone can attempt to prod him more about this, he claps his hands together and says, “Okay, let’s get this game done, yeah? I would like to get to my dinner early.”

The class seems to collectively pout, but they all settle down anyways. Jisung knows that they’d want their professor to go to his date without worries.

Everyone is excitedly chattering amongst themselves today, confident that they can chat with Professor Lee long enough for him to move the quiz to the next meeting. These days, it seemed surprisingly easy, much to Jisung’s surprise.

Chenle is sitting on his desk table, swinging a leg back and forth idly. He still studied a bit, because he’s Chenle and wouldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t, but he assures he didn’t fully study for today. He’s about as unprepared as most of them in terms of the quiz, and very much prepared in terms of the conversation topic.

Last Sunday, Professor Lee had posted photos of the road and then the view from what seems to be a pretty high place. He had captioned it with  _ Morning biking with the hubby! #AlwaysThankful #LoveAllAround _ and a bunch of hearts. Jisung wondered if that was just how married people captioned everything.

Today, Chenle was prepared with a slew of questions.  _ Where did you go biking sir? It looks so cool! Do you do morning bikes with your husband often? What bike do you recommend for beginners? _ It was infallible, really.

That is until the door opens and someone who is very clearly not their professor nor anyone from their class enters. Dressed in a leather jacket, jeans ripped to all hell, combat boots, and aviators, the person walks in, walks straight to the teacher’s desk. Chenle hops off of his desk almost immediately, and a hush falls over the room.

The person takes off his aviators, hooking them into the front of his shirt and flashing them a bright smile. One of his biker glove-clad hands rakes through his purple streaked hair, and Jisung sees his smudged eye makeup.

“Hi, I’ll be your substitute teacher today,” the person says, voice light and airy. “Professor Lee had to go to a last-minute seminar.”

And Jisung wonders, is this a senior? A graduate? A friend? He can’t quite place the person’s age, much less if he’d seen them around before. Surely, he’d remember if he did, but the campus was pretty large.

With quick, efficient hands, their substitute teacher pulls out a laptop, and a brand new HDMI cable. “Brought my own,” they muse, bitten-red lips curling up into a wider smile. “I know how you brats are.”

Nervous laughter rings across the room. They didn’t really know this person, but they seemed pretty okay. Better than some strict substitute that they might get otherwise.

The board is then filled with the projected image of the screen, blank for now. Hip resting on the edge of the desk, the substitute teacher tells them to take out a sheet of quiz paper and a pen. They all follow, quickly taking out what they needed and setting them down on their desks. Once the substitute teacher deems all of them ready, they flash the slide with all the questions.

“It’s just 10 questions. Easy, I promise.” Their voice is almost melodic, and Jisung finds himself having even more questions about them. He watches as they circle around to the front of the desk, perching up on the desk and sitting there casually.

He’s really not sure how Professor Lee would react to this, but he supposes they know each other pretty well to entrust them as his substitute for the day. Jisung takes a deep breath, focusing on the questions on the slide.

They  _ are  _ pretty easy, nothing like how Professor Lee usually did his quizzes. Jisung barely even flipped through his notes, but he can answer these rather well. Maybe he should really be thankful to whoever this substitute teacher is.

When he’s almost done, somebody from the back seems to raise a hand, because the substitute raises a brow, motions for whoever it was to ask the question.

“Uh, sir, what do we call you?”

Amusement flits across the person’s features. “My name’s Donghyuck. You can call me Sir Hyuck, but I’d much rather this is the last time I see all of you, so you don’t have to call me that for very long.”

Laughter bubbles across the room again. Sir Hyuck was nice, that much Jisung knew. 

“You can leave once you’re done, alright? Just give me the paper and go out.”

Jisung feels the sigh of relief. For a lot of them, this was their only morning class, and getting off early would be an absolute dream. Still, he focuses on the questions, hoping he doesn’t mess up very easy questions like these. He might never get a chance to go through a quiz like this again in this class.

He finishes pretty early, but he goes over all his answers again to make sure. Every now and then, he casts a glance at the man in front of them. He wasn’t particularly tall or large in any way, but something about him felt...intimidating. Like he could easily command the attention of any room he’s in, get anyone to listen to him. That happened in the class, undoubtedly it’d also happen outside of it.

It still stands that he’s not so bad. Not terrifying at all, and maybe someone they’d all stare at if given the chance. Sir Hyuck was admittedly pretty, and it was likely that everyone thought the same. He again wonders if he’s another teacher in the department that he’s never seen before, or a student that Professor Lee trusted very much.

Chenle finishes not long after, and they turn in their papers at the same time. While doing so, Jisung catches a whiff of clean linen scent mixed with the tiniest hint of spice, and he wonders where he’s smelled that before.

They say goodbye, and Sir Hyuck waves at them as they go out.

Jisung slams his carton of banana milk down on the table. “I’m telling you, I have a feeling about this!”

From across him, Chenle gives him a look over his spaghetti. “And I’m telling you, this feeling of yours is wrong!”

He slumps forward, burying his face in his arms. He’s been trying to explain to Chenle all the reasons  _ why _ Sir Donghyuck was Professor Lee’s husband for the past half hour, and Chenle wasn’t listening to his points.

“It’s his scent! He smells  _ exactly _ like Professor Lee!”

Chenle makes a face at him. “Maybe they just happened to have the same cologne or whatever. Honestly, do you really think that Sir Hyuck of all people would marry Professor Lee?”

“You’re so judgmental.”

“Yeah, and you’re delusional.” Chenle flicks a noodle at him. “Have you  _ seen  _ him? He looks like he might run over Professor Lee with his motorcycle, not buy his sweaters for him and cook him jjigae after long days at work!”

From beside Chenle, Yangyang stands up, flicks both of their foreheads. “The both of you, shut up. We don’t know them, and we shouldn’t be assuming things.”

With a pout, Chenle sinks back into his seat, shoving the rest of his lunch into his mouth. Jisung already knows that he’ll never give up on this, even though he’s momentarily silenced. 

Jisung still believes that he’s right, he has to be.

“Sir,” Chenle coos at the next meeting. Professor Lee is already writing the title of the new lesson on the board. “Who was that who subbed for you last time?”

Without turning around, Professor Lee says, “Oh, Donghyuck, you mean? Why, did he do anything?”

Somebody says that they were just curious, and Professor Lee makes the slightest chuckle, shaking his head. “Curious, huh? Why?”

They’re all quiet for a bit, just the sound of the marker on the whiteboard filling the silence. Professor Lee is looking momentarily at his laptop, then turning back to make a few bullet points.

“Is he a student, sir?”

“A graduate from here, actually.”

They all ponder over this. He looked pretty young, even younger than Professor Lee did. It wouldn’t be so far-fetched for him to be a student.

“Sir, is Sir Hyuck single?” somebody pipes up jokingly. Well, Jisung guesses it really was the consensus that people found the guy attractive.

Professor Lee doesn’t answer right away, continuing to write. He finishes the three main bullet points for the day, then turning around and putting the cap on the marker.

“I sure hope not,” he says, the corners of his mouth tilting up. “I’m married to him.”

There’s a resounding “huh?” that goes around the room, but it’s like Professor Lee doesn’t even hear it. He only presses something on his laptop, clasping his hands together to signal that he’s going to begin.

Donghyuck was Lee Haechan then, the unseen husband of their history professor. They’ve asked so much about how they met, how they got together, what he likes to cook for their professor, and yet none of them could’ve ever actually guessed that it would be  _ him. _ Donghyuck, with his leather and his makeup and his purple hair, and a voice that seemed like it could woo anyone. It was him who helped their professor pick out a cake for his cat, it was him who put together that diorama with him, it was him who had that beautiful wedding with him.

But really, Jisung is pleasantly surprised. Not what he had envisioned really, but it was great all the same. Love was love, and from what he had learned over the past weeks, the two were very much in love. Nothing was going to change that.

And maybe it’s a little difficult to conjure up the image of the man who waltzed into their classroom as their substitute teacher to be the one that drives Professor Lee to the university in his pale blue Honda, and maybe it’s even more difficult to visualize him carefully tug sweaters over his husband’s head in the morning and adjust his glasses on his nose and make sure Professor Lee always has a nice, homemade lunch, but hey, sometimes the truth was hard to believe. And the truth was that Professor Lee has someone he found and treasured very dearly, and they got a happy ending most people could only really dream of.

Somehow, somewhere, he feels very happy for his professor.

As Professor Lee introduces the lesson, Chenle mouths an “Oh, fuck you” to Jisung. He only raises his brows at it, trying not to be smug about the fact that he was right.

**Author's Note:**

> super enjoyed writing this ;; thank you to all the mods and participants of this fest, i had fun! <3
> 
> reveals are done! hello, it's me~ i feel like i'm super obvious >.<
> 
> talk to me: [twt](https://twitter.com/bundoie) | [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/bundoie)


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